Surviving the Canadian $ while travelling to Disneyland!

[sherilaine]

With the current CAD struggling to remain over 70 cents US - I thought I'd create a thread where perhaps some of us can discuss our ideas and suggestions for savings on flights, hotels, car rentals and dining options. I know there is a budget board and one for Canadians travelling to WDW, but since we are all travelling to DLR - it seems we don't have a central place to discuss this.

I was not able to find a similar thread so if one already exists - then pointing me to that would be great as well.

I can get things started with what we have done for our trip so far:

Flight - we found a great Westjet seat sale from Calgary to LAX after boxing day for our upcoming trip in late Feb/early March of $314 per person. This was what started the trip planning as it was such a great deal. They still have great winter deals on now as I think a lot of travelers are hesitant to book flights to the US given the exchange rate.

Hotel - we have AMA - which is CAA - which is the same as triple A in the US - and we booked using that through Hojo so that saves 10%. It seems many of the hotels offer a AAA discount.

Car rental - we used air miles to book our car rental which will save us a good amount with the exchange.

DLR Tickets - we bought 5 day PHs through Flight Centre for $414 CAD which saved us about $35 each compared to buying directly from Disney at the current exchange rate. Only downside is you have to exchange the vouchers at the ticket booth rather than take the eTicket directly to the entry gates.

Dining - I have been signing up for email deals for many of the hotels around DLR and DTD such as - Mimi's, Tortilla Joes, Tony Roma's and Outback Steakhouse to name a few. I am still on the hunt for more. I found the dining tips and links from Mousesaver are great. Any little bit we save takes the edge off the exchange rate, so even a 10% off coupon helps! The best deal I got was signing up for the Patina Restaurant Group and getting a $30 off coupon for Tortilla Joe's in DTD as my DH loves it there.

Anyone want to share some of their saving tips to ease the Canadian currency issues?

Of course any of our American friends are more than welcome to share any tips they might know of as well!

 

[E&Cmom]

Following along since we are about to book a trip down in March. I have giving up waiting for our dollar to get better. Great Thread!!

I am not 100% sure but right now we are thinking of getting the Southern California City Pass at Costco.ca so 3 days at Disneyland, on day at Legoland and one at Seaworld. I haven't been to either of them so they will be new to us.

I got a lot of coupons of the Anaheim tourism website when we went in 2013 so I check and see what is there for this trip.

Will keep checking this thread for tips. Thanks!

 

[Susie63]

An Amazon.ca Visa will save you the 2.5% convenience fee that most banks charge on US$ transactions. It is offered by Chase bank.

more coupons can be found here:
http://visitanaheim.org/coupons

 

[sherilaine]

That is where I got a lot of coupons, and you can use them more than once. There is a 10% off at McDonald's so every bit helps even. I also think you can upgrade the Park Hopper you get with the City Pass to either a 4 or 5 day Park Hopper if you wanted to spend more than 3 days in DLR and at $389 CAD that is less than you'd pay for a 3 day PH direct from Disney with the current exchange - so it's like getting Legoland and Seaworld for free!

I just might have to look into that amazon visa as I do most of the Christmas shopping there!!

 

[Sorcerer Jody]

It's so sad how bad our dollar is! I leave in 2 days! I used airmiles for our flight, which helped. Not doing too much else, expect for bringing lots of snacks, baked goods, and fruit, so we don't have to buy everything we eat. I'm trying not to think about the money too much!

 

[MICKEYFIL]

It's so sad how bad our dollar is! I leave in 2 days! I used airmiles for our flight, which helped. Not doing too much else, expect for bringing lots of snacks, baked goods, and fruit, so we don't have to buy everything we eat. I'm trying not to think about the money too much!

If you are going across the border then please leave the fruit behind. Don't ruin your trip before it starts by a random question at the border.

 

[sherilaine]

I think she means shopping locally .once they arrive and bringing to the parks. Most people don't pack fruit in their checked or carry on luggage when flying internationally. At least I hope not!

 

[Susie63]

I tried to bring home a candy apple as a treat for a little friend, from DL one time. I declared it on my customs form but it was a good 10 minutes trying to convince the officer that it would definitely be eaten the next day. Although we have driven over the border with fruit in our cooler....

 

[ShaunaM]

We are planning on opting out of buying drinks like pop etc. Maybe have a special drink with meal once in a bit not not every meal. for example a pop at Carnation Cafe is $3.49 ; there are five us and we have 6.5 days to eat paid meals lunch and supper, never mind outside of meals. One sitting at that price is $17.50 multiply that by the 13 times it could happen is $227.5 USD plus exchange . If we figure .35 cents on the dollar which is what we have just seen our credit card for a different trip that pushes our drink purchases to $306 CAD if I figured correctly. Tap water it is!
We will be again ordering breakfast groceries from VONS. I will hit Costco before we leave for granola bar type snacks and bring them with me rather than ordering from VONS. What I can bring through the border I will, the rest will get ordered. I had booked our hoppers with our Paradise Pier reservation but after seeing your comparison Sherliane I will do Flight Centre we have used them before , not a grand savings but when you multiply by 5. We have stayed at DLH the last few times but it is astronomically out of reach now , Paradise Pier is too really but we really want the Extra Magic Hours in California. I think we will skip Blue Bayou this time, we love going for the experience, but have never been wowed by the food, so will likely skip that expensive treat this time. FANTASTIC idea for this thread!

 

[Disney127]

We have the WestJet and Alaska credit cards which gives us a companion fare at a reduced rate once a year. This helps save us abit of money (not so much with the Alaska credit card now since that is in US$) but our trips are usually just DD14 and myself. We usually stay at the BWPPI and I book thru Costco. And I also book our car rental thru Costco but we only rent for a day to go to the beach or shopping. As for tickets, since our touring style is pretty laid back, we like to spend at least a week in the parks. And since we can only purchase tickets at 5 days max, we have Annual Passes. This time, we purchased Premier Annual Passes because we are headed to WDW in March and then back to DL in July. It was not good news when they increased the AP prices back in Sept (?) but we couldn't order these passes on line, we had to be there in person and the exchange rate is horrible. But I crunched some numbers and with the 15% off food and 20% of merchandise and all the days that we will be in the parks, it made me feel abit better. Just abit ... As for dining, we are not big breakfast people, we would just grab a piece of fruit from the BWPPI complimentary breakfast and share most of our meals. We also like pizza from the Pizza Press and it is not that expensive. After our recent trip, I was so happy to go grocery shopping and use Cdn money again!

 

[MICKEYFIL]

Just purchased the three tickets for our up coming trip which was $793 USD but turned into $1,132 Canadian. Luckily I got a new AMEX Gold card with $250 worth of points that could be used for travel. Applying the discount, I end up paying $882 CDN. A little closer to par. Oh the good old days.

 

[sherilaine]

We have the WestJet and Alaska credit cards which gives us a companion fare at a reduced rate once a year.

We each have the Westjet one - it is awesome to get that companion fare - we have saved close to $5000 over the last few years as we each use a pass for our kids.

We are planning on opting out of buying drinks like pop etc. Maybe have a special drink with meal once in a bit not not every meal.

We had this same discussion with our kids. Last three trips when the dollar was very strong we spend money without even considering the exchange - didn't even think about it. This time though the frozen lemonades, popcorn, cotton candy and ice cream treats are a NO! The main reason we are at DLR is not to eat snacks - and I find those are the ones you don't see - you look at something that costs less than $5 and you don't see a lot of conversion - but when you multiple that by the size of your party and you do that twice each day in the parks - you walk away wondering who stole all your money!

I also think it's not fair to compare the current state to when the dollar was close to par - that was unsustainable and we all knew it would not last. An 80 cent dollar is a good strong place to be - so when doing up the math for our trip we have compared the way it is now to if the dollar were at 80 cents, and when you look at it that way, you realize it's not all that much more. Sure it's a lot more than the sticker price in USDs but we are not likely to get back to par for many years if ever, so unless people want to put off their trip indefinitely, this is the new reality.

 

[ShaunaM]

I agree whole heartedly! I am looking at all of our trips and averaging out the cost of the dollar then it is a little better!

 

[Susie63]

We also take a Bobble bottle into the park. We just refill it at the fountain. The Bobble has a charcoal filter in it. I like the water in the park but DD doesn't.

 

[are you ready]

We will be forgoing a second dining experience, and just try and get fast passes for world of colour. I was hoping we wouldn't have to waste the extra time in line for a good spot but the cost of those packages get too high when factoring in the exchange.
Great idea about skipping pop/juice in the parks, I must admit I probably wouldn't have thought about that one but it for sure would add up.
I am also going to try and bring more American money then I would have in the past and pay cash instead of charging for food and splurge items, that way I can set my budget and see where it is going as it goes.

 

[dec2009mama]

we stop at a store and pick up juice boxes and small cans of pop instead of buying and just bring them with us into the parks. we aren't big juice/pop people but sometimes you need a change from water

 

[VandVsmama]

We live in the US, but the last 2 trips we've taken have been budget-focused visits to DL. A few things that I've done to help ease one's bank account are:

1. bring snacks with you into the parks each day, especially if you have children with you. This saves a lot of money. Pack the snacks in your checked luggage on the airplane...granola bars & stuff like that.
2. bring a refillable water bottle. It doesn't have to be big or anything, whatever is the right size for you. And at all of the counter service places, you can get free ice water. Use the ice water to fill up your water bottle. If you are sensitive to the way So Cal water tastes, bring one of those Brita water bottles. My daughter uses one for school and she loves it.
3. don't eat at a table service restaurant for each meal.
4. use www.allears.net to look at the menus ahead of time and you can kind of figure out which counter service restaurants will have options that everyone in your party will like. Plus, they have pricing on there, too, so that helps with planning things out.
5. if your hotel offers free breakfast, take advantage of it. If your hotel has grab and go fruit that you can take with you, then take some. We'd take 1 banana per person each morning after breakfast (we stayed at a Best Western) and both ODD & YDD would use those as snacks half way through the morning.
6. if your hotel does NOT offer free breakfast, shop at a local grocery store and have easy breakfast stuff in your hotel room before you leave for the parks in the morning. It'll be way less expensive than eating breakfast in DTD, DL, or DCA each morning. If you aren't renting a car, have groceries delivered to your hotel through Vons.
7. Have a budget for souvenirs and stick to it. Allot a certain $$ amount per person.
8. From our trip this past October, our family's favorite souvenirs were the pictures we all drew of Minnie Mouse at Animation Academy at DCA. Mine is hanging on the wall in my cubicle at work. And Animation Academy doesn't cost you a thing. FREE SOUVENIR!
9. But...DL now has Star Wars light saber umbrellas in Tomorrowland! They are $70.00 US. A friend of mine just bought one 2 days ago. It's totally awesome. Has a light saber handle and the light saber part of the umbrella lights up. Totally awesome. Budget for that if it's a must have!
10. For Table Service restaurants, plan wisely. Maybe in prior trips, you did an expensive package dinner each day, but due to the exchange rate, that's now not affordable. So consider doing just one package dinner this time. Or skip the package dinner altogether and instead do the Breakfast with Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn. You can see about 7 characters in one sitting and the price isn't that bad, it's all you can eat, and if you time your seating right, you could get a couple of hours of ride time in the parks first and then get to SIT for an hour while the characters come to you.
11. OR...have lunch at the Carnation Cafe (instead of dinner). Their food there is very tasty.
12. Off site - in October, we had dinner on our arrival day at Marri's Pizza on Katella Ave (http://www.marrispizza.com/). We got water instead of sodas and the total for the 4 of us (me, DH, ODD9, YDD7) was $45...INCLUDING TIP! Portions were large and we took leftovers back to the room with us & ate the leftovers the next day (our room had a microwave in it). The food was really good, too. Marri's will deliver to local hotels by the way.

 

[DnA2010]

On our most recent trip in Oct I was feeling the same way- gulping at the cost of things once you add the extra for the exchange...Like the others have talked about, we focused on savings on food and on souvenirs. As we were doing 6 days, we took a trip to the store and got stuff for breakfast (a box of cereal, jug of milk), fruit, makings for PBJs for lunch, snacks etc. We packed as much as we could- I brought a mio to add to the water, baggies, cheap bowls we left there, snacks. Cut our food costs right down, the only food money we really spent in the park was sharing two Plaza chicken platters and a big splurge of the Fantasmic BB package. A few other small things here and there but kept it really low. We were there for a HP also, so we asked for the candy alternatives (well DH and I did- DD still got the candy) so we actually had lots of snacks. On our previous trip we brought oatmeal for breakfast and just did it in the microwave- super cheap and filling. We also ordered pizza from our hotel room one afternoon- just one of local places but it was cheap and fed us at least 3 meals- DD and DH love cold leftover pizza.

We also did the pay cash and that helped

 

[ShaunaM]

Two more.

We are shifting, as I mentioned earlier, our hoppers to flight centre.ca by doing this I can charge them in Canadian dollars and avoid the 2.5% FOREX fee most credit cards charge, and they were cheaper there anyway, for 5 people I saved $110 CAD...thanks Sherilaine.

I am in the process of applying for a Marriott Rewards Visa card.
Chase Bank Canada does not charge the Forex fee, as far as I can see there are only two that don't that one and they also offer an Amazon.ca card. The Marriott rewards has a sign up bonus too, right out the gate a certificate for a free future stay at a Marriott hotel, and after first purchase 30, 000 points which could be up to another 4 nights free and annual fee is waived for the first year, after that on your anniversary you get another free night every year , which would erase the annual fee in year 2 and beyond.
Works for me, that FOREX fee has always annoyed me. We had explored an American dollar savings account and a an American Dollar Credit card, but you don't really avoid Forex that way, unless you earn American dollars, you still need to buy money to deposit to that account; so it is just a different point in the cash flow stream. If you buy cash you are paying it at the tellar, if you charge to a credit card you are paying it there. So as near as I can tell this is the only way to skirt it. It is not going to save thousands of dollars, but at this point every bit helps ; and those free nights will help mitigate the pain.

 

[Janemall]

We're in the same boat with a trip planned for December. Luckily we have a time share so we're staying at Dolphins. We also are using west jet companion fare/dollars to bring our 3 flights down to about $500 total round trip.

I plan on using flight centre and Costco for tickets to save on the exchange.

I've also started saving US coupons for groceries to cut down on food costs, and bought Restaurant.com gift certificates.

I'm using ebates on everything I buy to help save some extra money before the trip, and will be brining food with us from home. (Snacks, condiments, seasonings).

I'm also buying outfits from the local Disney store when they go on sale to save money in the park.